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Kids have a right to know too

The second and third recommendations
can easily be achieved with a gradual adjustment of lifestyle. But
finding food, not a
"food-like substance" but real
food, not just a brand-name but the stuff you can tell what it is
you're eating without being told can be challenging.

Consumers in
America are, however, rising to this challenge.

Iconic
brand names and 'food' packaged to last forever are
out [1], "clean
label" produce are in,
and sales of non-GMO certified foods have tripled since 2013 to $15
billion in the year to September 2015.

Poll
after poll has shown that an overwhelming majority of the public want
GM food to be labelled. And that includes kids.

One
"clearly very articulate, clearly intelligent" teenager
(now 16 years old) in Canada has been running a website for the last
two years on 'Kids Right to Know'.
Its message is a demand for GM food labelling, and it has a growing
social media following.

Attention
was drawn to this young activist's success by 'US Right to
Know' who used Freedom of
Information requests to investigate collusion between Big Food, Big
Biotech, their front groups and academics to deliver pro-GM
propaganda (see below).

It
seems the biotech industry felt so threatened by Kids Right to Know
that it requested one of its GM-friendly US science professors
to deal with the teenager. The result was a U-Tube video, described
by the young activist as "almost degrading". It suggested
her problem is when she "starts to let non-scientific thinking
kind of cloud her final decision-making process".

Why
would the mighty US biotech and food industry be so
scared of one 14-year-old? And one with a cloudy mind and
non-scientific thinking to boot?

Here's a clue.

PepsiCo
revitalised the flagging market for its neon-hued sports drinks by
redirecting its marketing from the 18-49 year-old macho males it
thought were going to buy its wares to kids.
It's the high-school kids who are the obsessive athletes and
marathoners: this is the population most devoted to their physical
health, and comprises a very food-conscious bunch.

The
second half of the answer is that, scarily for the food-like
substance industry, other
teenagers are listening to their peer, understanding her, believing
her, and seeing right through the hype. This wouldn't matter too
much if these teenagers were going to grow into adults like their
parents. But they won't. These aware youngsters are the
'millennials': they are the big earning and big spending generation
of the future.

It's satisfying to note that, David and Goliath-style, the
anti-kids-right-to-know video seems to have backfired. It has made
the creator of Kids Right to Know the 'face' for the GMO labelling
battle in Canada; it has drawn attention to the website, drawn
attention to the extremes to which Big Food and Big Biotech will go
to prop up their pro-GM agenda, and it has exposed the willingness of
top scientists to prostitute their credibility.

While the professor who offered to deal with a 14-year old is
curtailing his pro-GM activities and trying to justify his collusion
with industry using "a new standard of transparency" and "a
new tool to cultivate trust", that pesky teenager is playing him
at his own game: forget the science, kids "are still going
strong with our message of right to know ... we're just appealing to
simple transparency".

January
2016 started with a surprise announcement from Campbell Soup Co which
might prove a turning point in GM labelling in the US, and might just
get Kids Right to Know
what it wants.

After
years of supporting all industry moves to prevent
GM labelling, supporting loophole-laden 'voluntary' GM labelling, and
opposing all State attempts to legislate for GM labelling, Campbell
is setting "a new bar for transparency". The Company "is
withdrawing from all efforts led by groups opposing mandatory GMO
labeling legislation, including those led by the GMA (Grocery
Manufacturers Association)"
Campbell will now put its weight behind Federal
mandatory GM labelling.
And, to prove it's
serious, it will specify GM ingredients on its labels.

US
Professor of Nutrition, Marion Nestle, can have the last word:

"You
don't have to be a scientist to know how to eat ... just pick up
fruits, vegetables and meat, and stay our of the processed foods".

It's child's play.

OUR COMMENT

GM foods may be
struggling for acceptance (everywhere) at the moment, but the biotech
industry still thinks it can win acceptance in the long-term,
presumably once it gets rid of the old dears who are too set in their
ways to embrace 'science'.

On this side of the
pond, we've got GM food and feed labelling, but what the fish, hens,
cows and pigs which form a large part of our diet are being fed is
hush-hush. If Campbell's vision of the future and long marketing
experience win out, America will find itself in the same
semi-GM-labelled boat.

Does anyone know an
intelligent, articulate, blog-happy teenager who'd like to kick off a
UK or EU Kids Right to Know social media network?

It could start by
explaining that the problem is when Big Food and Big Biotech start to
let profit kind of cloud their final scientific process.

USRTK, funded
almost entirely by the Organic Consumers Association, filed Freedom
of Information requests to investigate 43 public (tax-payer-funded)
university faculties and staff.

It revealed
that GM-friendly academics chosen for their influence were asked to
pen short policy briefs on key GM topics.

The process of
producing and merchandising these respectable policy briefs was kept
at arm's length from the industry by using a respectable-sounding but
industry-funded front group, The American Council on Science and Health, and a PR company.

Welcome to GM-free Scotland

About us

Formerly known as the Scottish Consumers Association for Natural Food, Pro-natural Food Scotland was formed in 1996 by a group of concerned people in Glasgow, Scotland. We are funded entirely by donation and run by volunteers. We network with, and support, all like-minded groups and individuals. Our objective is to empower by raising awareness.